Twinning Info. / Visit reports - Haringay to Aizaria (Nov. '05)

Haringey Justice for Palestinians (HJFP) - www.hjfp.org.uk

Other link: www.children-of-bethany.org

October 2007. Palestinian leader visits Haringey
Issam Faroun, a democratically elected representative of the Palestinian people, toured Haringey for a week from Thursday 22nd November. Mayor Issam Faroun from Aizaria, also known by its Biblical name of Bethany, a town in East Jerusalem on the West Bank in Palestine spoke at a number of events and attended the Twinning with Palestine Conference. Aizaria is now surrounded on three sides by Israel's apartheid wall. The wall physically separates Palestinians from their jobs, relatives and vital services like education and health. The wall has devastated the local economy and community, and Issam has been central to the fight against it. Issam described in detail the effects of Israeli military occupation and how ordinary people are struggling to survive and to fight back.

On this page; About HJFP and Aizaria / Photos of visit

"Fifteen minutes from downtown Jerusalem, you can see what cruelty for its own sake looks like: collective abuse bearing no relation to its declared purpose. The little town of Abu Dis, once was nearly the temporary capital of Palestine, with an imposing parliament building to prove it, is just a dusty village nowadays, scarred and abandoned, with a wall that bisects everything.

For over a year now, an ugly concrete wall has divided the good people from the bad there, the prisoners from the free, the blue (Israeli identity cards) from the orange (West Bank ID cards). Officially, Palestinians who live west of the wall are okay; Israel leaves them alone, they're deemed residents of Jerusalem. Those to the east of the wall are caged like animals.
Bullied. Battered. Made to sweat. Covered in dust. An entire town scales the wall to get to school, to the grocery store, to work - day after day, evening after evening: old folks, young folks, women and children." From a Haaretz newspaper article

About HJFP and Aizaria

HJFP have agreed to twin communities in Haringey with those in the village of Aizaria in the occupied West Bank. Our emphasis will be on grass roots friendship links and solidarity.

Aizaria (also known as Bethany) is a suburb of Jerusalem split off by a huge wall on three sides. All its land has been taken for the large (infamous) settlement of Ma'aleh Adumim. They are asking that Haringey friends go to Aizaria to see for themselves the way the wall, checkpoints, settlements and land grabs affect the people there and publicising this on return. The wall is destroying the economy. Its purpose is to annex large areas of Israeli settlements in and around Jerusalem and to separate off Palestinians from Palestinians. It splits people off from family & relatives, jobs & markets, universities & schools, health services and much more.

Aizaria, Bethany is a sacred and historic town, home to Martha & Mary and their brother Lazarus and is very important to Muslims and Christians. It has thirteen Mosques and ten Churches who now cry out for the return of pilgrims and tourists. The historic road connecting Aizaria, Bethany to Jerusalem is now completely sealed off.

Some HJFP members were welcomed by the Mayor of Aizaria when we went there in November 2005. He showed us around the village especially where the monstrous wall is destroying their freedom and their resources. His secretary took some photos which are displayed below. We resolved to let people know when we came back about the injustice and to promote twinning in Haringey & Britain.

The map below shows the position of Aizaria (yellow) in Jerusalem. East Jerusalem, Aizaria & other villages, Ramallah to the north & Bethlehem to the south were all integrated with one another economically and socially. Now no more. Notice how split off from one another they are now. The black line represents the wall already built and the red line the proposal for the wall around Malle Adumin. All the blue patches (except West Jerusalem) represent illegal settlements built since 1967.

This photo shows the size of the wall as it is in the main street. It has destroyed the viability of the shops there, many of which are now empty.

The elected Mayor Issam Faroun (white jacket) walks towards the opening in the wall where people are trying to get through to go to work , visit relatives , go to school or to a health centre. They plead with soldiers who usually refuse them access to the other side. The more athletic often try to climb dangerously at another point. Mayor Faroun showed his identification as Head of Aizaria Council but the soldiers refused him entry too.

Our group approach the wall on the other side of the village. This totally blocks the road from Aizaria (Bethany) made famous in the Bible. To the right there is a religious congregation with houses and gardens. The wall cuts through it. Temporarily this is not fully closed. The priests leave the gates open for people to take advantage of the opening to get through to Jerusalem and they refuse to co-operate with the Israeli military.

On the hilltop is the illegal settlement of Malle Adumin (35,000 people). It is spread out over a large area and when the rest of the wall is built it will have all the land in between (see map above). All its present & future lands belong to the villages of Aiazaria and Abu Dis and has been confiscated by the Israeli military for ‘security' reasons. The occupation has been one huge land grab / armed robbery while the western world is silent.

This is a disabled children's project set up to help those most acutely affected by the wall & the occupation.